The Best Way In Doing all Manner of Things About the House

The Best Way In Doing all Manner of Things About the House

By HESTER M. POOLE

SECURE in matronly beauty, July appears upon the scene. Around her head is bound a wreath of scarlet poppies, while her hands clasp a bounteous store of fruits and grain. Lush and rank is the herbage around her feet, and regally the full-leaved forest stretches above her radiant form. Out and away from man-made haunts let us follow her lead. Beside murmuring brooks or the glorious ocean, along mossy pathways, in solitary communings with nature, we can secure health, harmony, and strength, both physical and spiritual, to last us for many a long month to come. Yet are there duties to be done, even in the pause and hush of midsummer. Our feet must be planted firmly on the earth, even though we are rapt in the sense of full-orbed beauty of warmth and sunshine.

The birthstone suitable for those born between June 21 and July 22, say those who claim to know, is the diamond; others equally adept, give the ruby, with the water lily as the flower. However one may regard the subject, it seems fitting that each individual should select as her favorite, some special gem, flower, and perfume. It may be the lily, the rose, the violet, and the torquoise, the carnelian, the amethyst or the opal. The latter, by the way, is no longer considered to be the omen of ill luck. English royalty has so declared, hence in Britain it is once more the fashion.

Excessive perspiration during the heated term can in a measure be overcome by applying to the skin, with a soft cloth, a mixture of cologne or Florida water to which has been added half the amount of tannic acid. When the moisture is dried, powder freely with baby or starch powder. Another recipe, and one good to remove sunburn, is to mix one-half ounce of benzoin with twice as much alcohol, one ounce of glycerine, and two ounces of pure, soft water. Still another excellent mixture is to make magnesia and soft water into a thick cream. Spread over face and hands, and in five minutes wash off with some mild soap and dry thoroughly. All these are excellent for

Sunburn, tan, and freckles, which are all removable by simmering a little pure castile or palm oil soap in a cup of new milk until it is thick as rich cream, but not too hard when cold. When cool, stir in a teaspoonful of lemon juice to the cupful, and keep for rubbing softly on the face after washing it with warm water and soap. It is an absurd notion that soap should never be applied to the face, and an uncleanly one. No portion of the person needs a more thorough cleansing, unless it be the hands. The dust, always floating in the air, mingling with the secretions of the skin, give that muddy complexion and those black heads that are increased by a too rich diet and a bilious condition that, in summer, can easily be avoided.

A physician says that sunburn and tan are also removable by spreading over the face upon retiring that benzoated zinc ointment that is prepared at the druggist's, and washing it off with soap and water in the morning. Another, which also removes black heads, is made by mixing two ounces of glycerine with one-half ounce tincture of benzoin, one-half ounce of borax, and the juice of three lemons. It should not be forgotten that for the skin a moderate use of borax, lemon juice, and pure olive oil soap, is most excellent. For compounding them there are various recipes. Oatmeal, too, is excellent, being both cleansing and soothing, and almond flour paste is unexcelled. That relaxed skin and greasy look in summer needs attention.

A soap lotion for tan, freckles, and sunburn is prepared by dissolving one and one-half ounces of ivory or castile soap finely shredded, in one pint of alcohol, to which add one scant ounce powdered borax dissolved in one pint of rose water. Finally incorporate with the above four tablespoonfuls of glycerine, and one-fourth of an ounce of benzoic acid. Let it filter through filtering paper, and keep for use on the face and hands by rubbing with a few drops poured on a soft linen cloth. Still another cleansing soap lotion is made by putting into a bottle one ounce of powdered orris root with four ounces of alcohol, and shaking occasionally for five days. In a larger bottle put one ounce powdered castile or ivory, or green soap, with four ounces of orange flower water. Shake well and stand away until the soap is dissolved. Then pour in the orris extract, taking care not to add the precipitate in the bottom of the bottle. Use a little in the water in which the face is washed, in place of soap. Where the perspiration continues to be excessive, it is well to take equal parts of powdered French chalk and powdered carbonate of magnesia, and mix with a little diluted first proof alcohol. Apply with a soft cloth or small sponge, and allow it to dry on the face. Then brush it off with a soft cloth.

Cucumber juice, chickweed extract, and tansy are all good for removing blemishes and inducing freshness of the skin. Express the juice of cucumbers well grown, and apply freely. Chickweed pressed through a sieve can be diluted with soft water. The old-fashioned fresh tansy infused in buttermilk is also most excellent, and both are usually within the reach of our rural readers.

Blackheads in the face are not growths, as some suppose, but are merely the union of the natural oil of the cuticle, imbedded in the pores and colored by dust. The larger the pores the larger the black heads. To remove them simply scrub the face with pure soap suds applied with a small camel's hair or even an india rubber brush, having the suds extremely warm. To be successful it must be thorough and repeated. Then wash with cold water to contract the pores, and at night use any of the face washes described above. By stimulus the relaxation of the skin may be overcome. Then it must be kept clean. Nothing, however, will give a fine complexion except good habits, good, plain, digestible food, and attention to the excretory system. An occasional dandelion pill or the extract of that plant, the use of salads, and due exercise are all valuable. After rubbing with the face brush and hot suds a plunge of the face into cold water, of a temperature of 45° or thereabouts, will stimulate and contract the surface.

Skin food is required where the cuticle is relaxed and the circulation poor. For this nothing is better than sweet cream rubbed in at night and washed off in the morning. A food that is in its way perfect is prepared by mixing, after melting separately, six ounces of cocoanut oil, two of white wax, and two of spermaceti. Add any favorite perfume, pour on a warm platter, and beat to a cream. After cleansing the face rub in thoroughly and wipe off the excess. It is best done at night or after one has been out for the day.

To keep cool is now a daily object. As much depends upon association, it is wise to remove from sight all hangings of bright colors, to discard the same from dress, and when at home to wear clothing unbelted and hanging from the shoulders. Children even more than grown people suffer from belts and bands that prevent the free circulation of air and retain perspiration. Past is the day of ugly Mother Hubbard wrapper; but the empire frock, entire from neck to hem and loosely belted under the bust, can be made either warm or cool to suit the temperature. It allows a free play of the muscles, releases from pressure the vital organs, and permits unimpeded circulation. All these are necessary for health. As for color, neutral tints with dull blues and greens should be the rule. Close, stuffy upholstered furniture must have coverings of light hue, and all drapery removed from windows, save, when needed for protection, curtains of scrim or madras. At least one window in each room should have a screen for the upper sash, so that the latter may be lowered to invite a free circulation of air. Then, in the early morning, if all the house, from attic to cellar, is thrown open for an hour or two, after which the blinds are closed, the rooms will be as cool as the thermometer will allow. After this the experienced housekeeper will prepare a light dessert, if she must have any in addition to fruit, and determine to keep an even mind and to take life easy.

For the little ones special care is necessary. Dress them in a couple of garments so they can tumble about easily and let them play in a shady place with plenty of clean sand. For their sake the mother needs to be admonished to look well after the cleansing of all vessels in which milk is kept or used. When emptied, milk dishes should be washed, at once, in cold suds, then scalded in hot suds, rinsed, and, if practicable, daily sunned. Should they be scalded first, particles of curdled milk will adhere to sides and crevices, and, souring, will provoke all sorts of stomach disorders. Carelessness or thoughtlessness in these respects has robbed many a home of its little prattlers.

Let them have fresh, ripe fruit, never the stale, and see that if unpeeled the fruit is well washed. Between the visitations of insects, dust, and unclean hands, without washing fruit one may consume deleterious material. It would be well for grown people to remember this fact. Also to look well to remnants of food kept in safe or refrigerator. Since science has diagnosed ptomaine poison, which too often festers in cheese, meat, and milk as well as fish, much acute suffering and many deaths, formerly unaccountable, have been traced to the subtle action of bacteria. One good rule is never to set aside in a close receptacle any article of warm food. Everything should be well aired before putting in a cool place, and no food, in warm weather, should be cooked or kept in tin. Acids, particularly, are made poisonous by carelessness. Decaying fruit, withered vegetables, are, to say the least, dangerous to the most healthy. Eternal care and cleanliness are the price of well being. Among other things let the beds be taken apart and given a daily airing, and not pass over the unspeakable filth of leaving the chamber with sheets fetid with the emanations of the night, thrown and tumbled just as sleepers have left them. Children at four years of age can be taught to turn back their little bedding; such lessons are never forgotten.

To return to foods, it is well to bear in mind that canned beef, chicken, tongue, and other meats, so convenient for use at this season, should, when opened, be immediately removed from the tins. If left standing in the cans even an hour, they are liable to go through insidious chemical changes. So it is with ice cream left in the freezer, and so in a less degree with fruits and vegetables. Whenever tins bulge in a convex manner at the top, the contents have undergone fermentation. Those with concave tops show that the air is exhausted.

Water drinking in summer may be either a source of health or of illness. Huge draughts of ice-cold fluids check digestion often, if one is overheated, in a dangerous way. As reaction is sure to follow, a rise of temperature after a brief space is inevitable. Yet there is a way to drink water cooled by standing in the immediate neighborhood of ice, so that it will be most wholesome. A distinguished scientist declares that sipping a liquid is a powerful stimulation to the circulation, which ordinary drinking is not. He continues: "During the action of sipping the action of the nerve which slows the beating of the heart is much lessened. As a consequence that organ contracts much more rapidly, the pulse beats more quickly, and the circulation is increased. In addition, the pressure under which the bile is secreted is raised by the sipping of fluid."

It follows that the slow sipping of a glass of cold water not only serves as a stimulant to pulse action, it enters into the general circulation without depressing the digestion and allays thirst much more effectually than the gulping down double the quantity at one draught. Try it, fathers and mothers, and induce your children to drink slowly. When they come heated and weary from the street or from play, show them how to sip a tumbler of cool—not ice cold—water, as rational beings ought,—not like animals. Otherwise the tone of the stomach, in time, will be permanently lowered.

Milk drinking follows the same law. As a beverage we have previously pointed out the need of sterilizing milk for babies and children. The danger of contracting typhoid and consumption from using milk drawn from cows that are often in apparent health is emphasized by the statements made by the Health Boards of various states and cities. Milk is sterilized by bottling, corking with cotton, and after placing the bottles in a kettle having a false bottom, filling the vessel with cold water, and allowing it to come to a boil. At the end of a half hour, the bottles may be removed and closely corked. Whatever unwholesome bacteria the milk might have contained are killed by the heat.

Even then, milk must be sipped. Taken at one draught it is coagulated by the gastric juice the moment it reaches the stomach. There it remains in one large lump, upon which that digestive fluid cannot act. There results disturbance or pain, and the person supposes the milk disagrees with him or her. The fact is that the same amount of milk, slowly sipped, would present to the gastric juice small, separate masses of coagulum that are readily acted upon. Hence all depends upon the manner in which fluids are imbibed.

It must be borne in mind, however, that milk should never be taken at the same meal with meat or with acid fruits. Think of the mass of complicated stuff taken at one meal by the careless eater who declares that he "can digest anything," and wonder not when he does break down in health and becomes an invalid. That we can eat anything that is not poisonous if taken in the right way, is true. Still, unhappy mixtures, too many kinds of food at one meal, and such things as pickles and milk or ice cream or edibles that are violently antagonistic, excesses, and combinations that require great difference of time needed to complete digestion, all these are unreasonable, exhausting, and intemperate. Temperance means something more than abstinence from alcohol. It is moderation in all foods and drinks.

Piazza life again is in pleasing evidence. Would the housewife live a free, joyous, happy series of years? Then let her simplify work and encamp on the outdoor sitting room. With a broad lounge and many cushions, all covered with duck, a hammock or two, rustic tables and chairs, a fish net on the wall to hold balls, bats, and other impedimenta, many an hour of morn, or eve, or midday, even, may be happily spent. Desirable among other furnishings is a removable screen to shield from sun and breeze. Behind its shelter teas and luncheons, soothed by delightful sights and sounds, may often be partaken. If needful, one corner may be screened with mosquito netting or wire, where mother's work and books, and the children's playthings, are free from nuisances. Where a broad piazza makes the rooms of the first floor dark in winter, this objection may be obviated by removing the outer half of the veranda roof, and providing a summer awning to be attached to permanent posts and cross-pieces. During more than half the year it may be rolled up and laid away. The next best thing is a children's tent on the lawn, and bushels of clean sand for them to play with.

Preserved flowers, this month, may be prepared. In several waters thoroughly wash some fine, clean sand, and dry it in the sun. In a box of suitable size spread sufficient of it to hold the stems of those to be preserved. Pluck the blossoms while they are fresh, but upon a dry day, and stand them in the sand carefully to prevent their touching each other. Now, with sieve, gently sift in more sand, meanwhile arranging in place every leaflet and petal. Continue until the topmost leaves are covered, and set away in a dry place for ten days or two weeks. Then gently tip the box, allowing the sand to sift out, and the flowers will remain colored and intact like so many beautiful mummies.

Cut flowers, while we are upon the subject, must be again treated. Too many housekeepers allow them to remain in the same water day after day, to the disgust of olfactory nerves, and to the jeopardy of health. Nothing sooner pollutes air than the stale water holding flowers. Every morning it should be renewed after a thorough washing of the vases, while the bottoms of those fresh enough to remain are clipped off. In one or two days they gather obnoxious slime. All dead leaves should be removed, with decaying blossoms. A bit of charcoal in the water prevents rapid fouling, and to dip the bottom of the newly clipped stems of flowers plucked a day or two before in hot water for a moment only, serves to renew their life. A few drops of ammonia in the water is said to produce the same effect. By all means let us teach our children to take care of flowers, so as to increase their love of beauty and enjoy an elevated happiness. Flowers should always be cut, not broken, from the stem, in the early morning before they are withered with sunshine.

Mosquito bites are often rank poison, especially upon the delicate flesh of children. It has lately been scientifically proved that the long proboscis of this pest may carry germs from decaying matter into its victim, thus producing malaria or a species of blood poison. Where exposure is impossible to avoid, discomfort is obviated by rubbing the exposed parts with a mixture of one part of oil of sassafras with five parts of proof alcohol. Every three or four hours a slight rubbing must be repeated. The mixture does not stain nor is it unpleasant. The bites of mosquitoes and spiders, unless the latter be of an unusually virulent type, can be antidoted by an immediate application of a paste of baking soda and water. Salt will answer in most cases, and listerine is good. Should the bitten part seem angry and swollen, diluted carbolic acid will antidote the poison. Scientists have also proved that dangerous disorders like yellow fever have been carried from an ill to a well person; and it is supposed that contagious disorders unaccountably taken frequently originate in the same way.

Garden parties are a delightful way of entertaining during July and August. Under the shade of trees, awnings, and huge Japanese umbrellas may be spread rugs, if one fears the soft turf. Within, place all sorts of seats and tables. Upon the latter stand baskets of fruit with knives and Japanese paper napkins ; the fruit interspersed with ferns and flowers. If practicable have a central tent or awning or even a rustic bower covered with the boughs of evergreens. Under it a pretty maid dressed in a quaint costume may pretend to be a palmist, promising all sorts of brightness and romantic adventures to one guest after another. Should there be at hand a fine singer or player upon the mandolin or banjo, or an amateur juggler, press him or her into service. The object is to be hospitable in an al fresco way, without too much fuss and feathers. To aid this the refreshments should be simple and mostly cold, having been principally prepared the day before.

Suggestions for summer. During an overheated period the temperature of a sitting or a bed room can be lowered by hanging in the open doorway a sheet wrung out of cold water, which will at once temper the breeze blowing through it. Drinking water, where ice cannot be procured, can be cooled sufficiently to satisfy the most fastidious taste, by setting on the cellar bottom a porous earthen jar filled with water, and tying about it a cloth likewise kept wet. Radiation from the surface keeps down the heat. Water that has been kept in jars or bottles within the ice-box but not in contact with the ice (also distilled water) is often objected to on account of a flat taste. To obviate this, pour the water, just before serving, from one pitcher to another in order to aerate it.

Picture frames and chandeliers, where doors and windows are not sufficiently protected by screens, need to be covered with cheap, unbleached cheesecloth. Lay the pictures face downward on the cloth, cut around them leaving a margin large enough to tack back and forth, and hang up in place again. Should coverings be objected to, flies can be discouraged from venturing upon the gilt by washing them with a soft brush dipped in a pint of water in which three or four onions have been boiled. Chandeliers, after being dusted, should have the stems wound with the cheese cloth, then cover the whole with newspaper. Globes should be wrapped in paper and put away in drawers.

Upholstered furniture is liable to collect moths, even in rooms commonly used in summer. Crevices and corners are their hotbeds. To sprinkle with benzine or gasolene is dangerous work unless the room is to be locked all summer. Turpentine poured into the dark corners, followed by a good airing upon a shaded veranda, seems to be the only safe protection. Where the house is to be closed, beat the furniture coverings well, reach into the hidden places with a small, stiff brush, then lay over all the cloth pieces of tar roofing paper, and cover the whole with muslin, new or old. The upholstered legs must be wound with strips of muslin over tar paper. To cover with holland or cretonne will keep out dust but not moths.

Books kept either in open or closed cases must be thoroughly dusted, with the shelves also, if the house is closed, and the cases covered with muslin. Those having fine bindings should each be wrapped in paper. Marble figures and plaster of Paris statuettes should first be cleaned, then covered tight with paper or cloth. To cleanse them make a thick paste of whiting and water, brush over into every crevice, and when dry rub it off with a brush. Open grates should either have well-fitting sheet-iron screens or strong manilla paper to keep out soot, and irons and fireplace fittings of steel or brass should be rubbed with linseed oil to prevent discoloration and rust. Both these blemishes will appear in any house, even if occupied, during a damp summer, or in a shady room. Nickel plating, also, needs a good coating of oil to keep it bright and untarnished.

Before closing a house, see that everything, inside and out, is in order and good repair. Examine the fastenings of all blinds and the locks of all doors; see that the roof does not leak, that the cellar windows are secure and protected, and that all gates on the premises will stay shut. Pack bedclothing in closets, cover mattresses with old sheets, set chairs back against the wall, empty and cleanse kitchen closets, and determine to be care free after leaving the beloved Lares and Penates of the home.